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Here we are again. Make yourself comfortable.

Yet more details have emerged from that infamous 2016 private plane fight that likely ended Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s marriage.

Jolie has described the extent of the abusive behaviour she and her children allegedly endured on that flight at the hands of Pitt in a cross-complaint filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

This is all a part of that ongoing legal battle over the French winery that the former Hollywood sweethearts once co-owned. You know the one – the Chateau Miraval that Pitt said he poured his heart into and (a share of) which Jolie sold as soon as the divorce was in the works.

According to Jolie’s lawyer, she was about to sell her share of Chateau Miraval to Pitt but negotiations broke down when he made a demand that she sign “a nondisclosure agreement that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children”.

The Guardian covered the details of this, which we have not heard before:

The filing… describes an extended physical and verbal outburst by Pitt in September 2016 as the couple and their six children flew from France to California. According to court papers, “Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face” and “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her”.

At one point “he poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red wine on the children”. Jolie filed for divorce days after the trip, which was investigated by federal authorities, who have jurisdiction over flights. The FBI declined to bring criminal charges.

As you may well remember, Pitt was not criminally charged for these allegations, which prompted Jolie to pose as a ‘Jane Doe’ and seek out a copy of the FBI’s report in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

The court filing goes on to detail Jolie’s account of the incident:

She says [it] began when Pitt accused her of being “too deferential” to their children and yelled at her in the bathroom. “Pitt grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her, and then grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall,” the filing states. “Pitt then punched the ceiling of the plane numerous times, prompting Jolie to leave the bathroom.”

According to court papers, when one of their children came to Jolie’s defense, Pitt lunged at the child, leading Jolie to grab Pitt from behind. Pitt “choked one of the children and struck another in the face”.

They have six children together, and Jolie apparently went “to great lengths to try to shield their children from reliving the pain Pitt inflicted on the family that day”, according to her lawyer:

“But when Pitt filed this lawsuit seeking to reassert control over Jolie’s financial life and compel her to rejoin her ex-husband as a frozen-out business partner, Pitt forced Jolie to publicly defend herself on these issues for the first time.”

The divorce proceedings and the fight over the custody of their kids have been relatively public for some time now.

A prediction as far back as 2018 stated that the situation will “outlive us all”.

Well, that still seems to be on track.

[source:guardian]